On the seven point international nuclear event scale the incident. Commercial nuclear power plant history. It is the most significant accident in u s.
The three mile island accident was a partial meltdown of reactor number 2 of three mile island nuclear generating station tmi 2 in dauphin county pennsylvania near harrisburg and subsequent radiation leak that occurred on march 28 1979. It was the first ge designed nuclear plant to be constructed and run entirely by the tokyo electric power company tepco. The fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant consisted of six ge light water boiling water reactors bwrs with a combined power of 4 7 gigawatts making it one of the world s 25 largest nuclear power stations.
Examples include lethal effects to individuals radioactive isotope to the environment or reactor core melt the prime example of a major nuclear accident is one in which a reactor core is damaged and. A nuclear and radiation accident is defined by the international atomic energy agency iaea as an event that has led to significant consequences to people the environment or the facility. The 1986 meltdown at the chernobyl power complex in the ukraine recently dramatized in the hbo series chernobyl was followed 25 years later by the 2011 disaster at fukushima daiichi nuclear.
The idea states that under the proper meltdown conditions the nuclear core could melt through the containment structure and eventually through the crust and core of the earth until it reached china. Made popular by the 1979 movie of the same name. China syndrome is a hypothetical disaster that could occur under meltdown conditions.
Indeed as nuclear power plants can t produce a hiroshima style nuclear detonation a meltdown is about as bad as it gets. This is true whether you re talking about your boss figurative meltdown in the office or the very real concerns surrounding such events as the 2011 fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant disaster. The term nuclear meltdown has become synonymous with worst case scenarios.
And france according to data from the. With 54 nuclear reactors generating 280 billion kilowatt hours annually japan is the world s third largest producer of nuclear power after the u s. It is considered the worst nuclear disaster in history and was caused by one of only two nuclear energy accidents rated at seven the maximum severity on the international.
4 reactor in the chernobyl nuclear power plant near the city of pripyat in the north of the ukrainian ssr.
Meltdown nuclear power plant core. A nuclear meltdown core meltdown core melt accident meltdown or partial core melt is a severe nuclear reactor accident that results in core damage from overheating. The term nuclear meltdown is not officially defined by the international atomic energy agency or by the nuclear regulatory commission. It has been defined to mean the accidental melting of the core of a nuclear reactor however. In a conventional nuclear reactor the main line of defense against a meltdown is the fuel control rod which power plant operators use to control the fission rate in the core.
The chernobyl disaster was caused by a nuclear accident that occurred on saturday 26 april 1986 at the no.
The chernobyl disaster was caused by a nuclear accident that occurred on saturday 26 april 1986 at the no. In a conventional nuclear reactor the main line of defense against a meltdown is the fuel control rod which power plant operators use to control the fission rate in the core. It has been defined to mean the accidental melting of the core of a nuclear reactor however.
The term nuclear meltdown is not officially defined by the international atomic energy agency or by the nuclear regulatory commission. A nuclear meltdown core meltdown core melt accident meltdown or partial core melt is a severe nuclear reactor accident that results in core damage from overheating.
